Bad Things
by Madeline-Ann
Summary: Clairvoyant Grace is looking for her brother who was last seen hanging around with the local fangbangers, before he disappeared. She knows he's alive, she'd have sensed it if he died, but she has no idea where he is. For a year Grace been going from vampire bar to vampire bar but has found nothing... Until she is sent to Shreveport and accidentally saves the life of Eric Northman.
1. Chapter 1

The vampire bar was tacky and sex-centric, but in Grace's experience that wasn't unusual. She'd been to a lot of vampire bars in the past year or so and they were all fairly samey. Full of leather and PVC and exotic dancing, fangbangers dressed like slaves in some sort of BDSM fantasy. Flashing her ID at the woman standing by the door, she ignored her look of interest and headed straight for the bar. Grace knew she stood out from the usual clientele in a place like this. She wore plain blue high waisted jeans, a white cropped vest top and grey sandals. Over the past year or so she had accumulated some clothes that would allow her to blend in more - but they were all in the wash. Or waiting to go in the wash, anyway. She hadn't been anywhere with the chance to wash her clothes in a while, considering she was sleeping in a tacky little box room in the sleaziest motel she'd had the misfortune to stay in. But a bed was a bed, and she supposed it was better than sleeping in her car - which she'd had to do in the past.

Fangtasia had only been open half an hour or so but was already heaving and so she struggled to push past vampires and humans alike to get to the bar for a much needed drink. She ordered a double vodka and orange juice and downed it almost in one as soon as the cool glass touched her lips.

"You look like you needed that"

Grace looked up to see the bartender pushing another glass over to her. She thanked and paid him and took her second drink over to the corner where she could observe the area, hopefully without drawing too much attention to herself. Her second drink she sipped this time, as she didn't want to be too drunk just in case this was night she'd finally find who she'd been looking for. But as the hours dragged by and there was no sign of him she was losing hope, if there even was any hope left after the past year. Godric had been so sure that she'd find what she was looking for in Shreveport, but there didn't seem to be any trace of him. She would have known if he had been there recently, like she just knew all sorts of things that she wasn't supposed to. He hadn't been here. Grace was just about to get up and leave, ready to give in and call it a night, when suddenly there was a tall blonde vampire sat opposite her.

"I don't take kindly to undercover police in my bar." It took Grace a second to collect her thoughts. Although she had been around them a lot the past few years, she sometimes still struggled to remember how fast they could be, how powerful. And the vampire in front of her certainly seemed to radiate power. She wasn't scared of him, it took a lot to scare her these days, but she supposed he had the potential to scare her if he put his mind to it.

"This is your bar, huh? Nice place, very...Uh, not tacky." A low growl echoed in his throat, and suddenly his fangs were down. He had shifted his chair so it was right next to her, and was leaning dangerously close to her neck.

"I am not in the mood to play games"

"Neither am I, so fuck off. I'm not an undercover cop," Grace subtly shifted so her neck was slightly further away from his fangs. She was in no mood to become a blood bag tonight, or any night for that matter. The vampire stared at her for a few seconds as if trying to work her out. When he next spoke his voice was dangerously low.

"So I'm expected to believe you coming here looking ridiculously out of place, having only two drinks, sitting by yourself in the corner and observing my customers is your idea of fun? You should learn to respect your elders, girl." His fangs now gently grazed the side of her neck. Angrily she grabbed two fistfuls of her black t-shirt, careful not to touch any skin, and shoved him away.

"Guess I'm just weird that way. Anyway, and this isn't because of your pathetic attempt to intimidate me, so you know, but I was just leaving." Hastily she stood up and started working her way around the table.

"Pathetic?" He asked, with barely concealed anger. Perhaps she shouldn't have said that; she'd always had an issue with holding her tongue. She ignored him, but clearly this didn't sit well with him as Grace had barely gotten round the table before he was standing in front of her. "I think you should come with me for a minute, Miss...?"

"It's Grace, and no fucking way. I'm going home."

"Well _Grace_ , my name is Eric, and I would very much like to speak with you in my office." She moved away but not quick enough, and Eric reached out to grip her wrist with almost bone crushing force. But she wouldn't notice the pain until later, because right now the world was shifting around her.

She was still in Fangtasia, and Eric was beside her. They were standing in practically the same place they were before but something was off. The walls felt closer somehow. Dread filled her… Something awful was about to happen. Suddenly, a man with dark hair cropped closely to his head and bad teeth came crashing towards them with a pained look on his face. Tears filled his eyes, and his hand was reaching for his back pocket. Grace knew instinctively that he was reaching for a gun, and that it was loaded with wooden bullets.

"This is for my daughter, you fucking fanger cunt!" With that, and before anyone could react, the man had shot Eric. Straight in the heart. She was choking on his blood. Blind, gagging, she heard the gun go off again.

And then she was back into reality.

A wave of nausea hit Grace as it always did when she had just came out of a vision, but she resisted the urge to vomit as panic filled her and she realised how little time she had. Looking down, she saw her wrist was still locked in his vice like grip. The pain was almost blinding.

"Resisting me isn't going to make this any less unpleasant, Grace." Hastily she turned to the door and saw the man had just entered. There was no fucking time.

"Look Eric you have to trust me and I know I have no way of knowing this that has a reasonable logical explanation but that man that just came in has a gun, and the gun is loaded with wooden bullets. He's going to shoot you in the heart!" She tried to pull her arm out of his grip, or push him away in the direction of safety, but it was no use. He simply stared at her with an expression of mild amusement on his face.

"Now now, telling stories is for little children Grace. Let's act like adults now and go on over to my office shall we?" He began to tug her away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw he'd reached the edge of the crowd, was reaching behind him.

"This is for my daughter you-" was heard at the same time as Grace yelled "Fucking move, arsehole!" And with strength and speed she didn't know she owned, yanked her arm out of his grip, and shoved the vampire as hard as she could. It wasn't enough to move him far. A couple of stumbled steps, caused more by surprise than anything else. But it was enough. The bullet missed him completely.

Grace wasn't so lucky.

Pain exploded in her shoulder. In an instant, it felt as if all the life had been drained out of her and she collapsed to the floor in agony.

"Fucking fangers," she hissed through her teeth as she ripped her top off with her good arm and pressed it around her shoulder in an attempt to stop the blood flow. It started to soak through in seconds. "Nothing but fucking trouble." Her vision was starting to get hazy around the edges. Before she could react, Eric was in front of her

"You saved my life. Why did you do that?" His voice was filled with curiosity and something else she couldn't quite place.

"The guy with the …gun?"

"Taken care of. Why did you save my life? No, wait… How did you know?"

"This…This all sounds like a conversation we could have when I'm not fucking bleeding to death! Will you just do me a favour and call me a bloody ambulance?" She took the ragged remains of her top away from her shoulder for a second to inspect it. The cloth was bright red and dripping. Soaked through. Grace thought she might be sick. "That can't be fucking good." Grace vaguely heard someone yelling for everyone to go home.

"I don't need to call you an ambulance," he said and with more gentleness and speed than Grace could ever think possible picked her up and carried her into his office, laying her down on a dingy black sofa on the back wall. She cried out as the impact, slight as it was, caused lightning rods of pain to shoot up her shoulder.

"What do you mean you're not going to call me an ambulance? I save your life and this is how you fucking repay me? By letting me bleed to death? You're not going to fucking drain me are you? Shit, shit, shit.. I picked the wrong night to come to your fucking bar! How the fuck did I manage to get myself shot in a vampire bar?!" Her voice was weak and mumbling, not at all the powerful exclamation she wanted it to be, but Eric heard her nonetheless.

"No I am not going to drain you, though-" He paused to wipe up a drop of blood on her arm with his finger before licking it off," you do taste divine." Grace made a disgusted noise and turned away. "My blood will heal you completely. It will be as if you were never shot in the first place." She turned her eyes to him but a bloody wrist was facing her, dangerously close to her mouth. "Quick, before it heals, Grace"

"V? That's your fucking solution!? I'm not touching that shit. I'd rather bleed to death." She meant it too. Grace had seen what V had the power to do to people, to her brother. And she hadn't had a particularly strong will to live as of late. She scrunched up her face and turned away, ignoring the renewed agony in her shoulder that it had caused.

"Well usually your death would be of little consequence to me, but seeing as you did save my life and how you saved my life is incredibly intriguing to me, I am afraid that I cannot let you bleed to death." A firm hand gripped her chin and pulled it to his wrist. Grace did her best to keep her mouth shut but Eric easily overpowered her, prising her jaw open and then his blood was in her mouth. At first she planned to just hold it there and spit it out as soon as she had the chance but soon there was just too much blood, and she had to swallow otherwise she would choke.

The healing effect of his blood took place almost immediately. She could feel the fragments of bullet pushing their way out of her skin, and then her muscles knitting together again. The pain had intensified for maybe a few seconds, then was gone completely. When he was satisfied she was fully healed, he released her jaw. Angrily, she spat the rest of his blood onto the floor.

"Motherfucker"

"I have fucked a few mothers in my time, I suppose. But is that anyway to treat someone who just saved your life?" Grace pushed herself into a sitting position to get a better view of him. He was leaning against the wall across from her, his arms folded. She suddenly became very aware that she was only in her bra and covered in her own blood.

"Ugh you're disgusting. Can I go home now?" She knew as she was asking that it was probably futile. He hadn't forced his blood down her throat just to let her walk out of his life as soon as she felt like it.

"I'm pretty sure you already know the answer to that." He threw a t-shirt at her, bright red with the Fangtasia logo emblazoned across the front. Grace made a face. "Put this on. We need to talk and you're too distracting to me dressed like that. The girl's bathroom is just outside of here. Clean yourself up, it's not polite to stay covered in your own blood in the presence of vampires."

"Oh I am sorry I must have missed the vampire etiquette memo because I was too busy, y'know, getting shot!" Angrily she shoved the t-shirt on and got up to leave. He was regarding her with that look of mild amusement in his eyes again. It made her want to stake him herself.

"When you're done come out to the main bar area, you have some explaining to do." Grace ran a hand through her hair in frustration and found to some surprise that it was shaking. She clenched her fists.

"I'll be waiting, _Grace_."


	2. Chapter 2

Grace looked like something out of a horror film. The blood had crusted around her arm, and over her face where she'd splashed herself; the ends of her dark brown locks were stiff with the stuff. In the end she decided that the best solution would be to take off her clothes so they wouldn't get wet and stick her head under the tap, holding it there until the water ran clear. Thankfully the bathroom was a lot cleaner than one would expect from a vampire bar. The water was cold and stung her face but she welcomed it, anything to distance herself from the haziness she'd felt earlier, the detached feeling towards her death.

In fact, she'd never felt so distant from that hazy feeling. Eric's blood flowed in her veins, and so did some of his power. She was strong. She could see better, hear better. She had never felt so good and suddenly the appeal of V didn't seem so strange to her. But, she reminded herself as she removed her head from the sink and set to scrubbing her shoulder, he was still a massive twat for giving it to her and V still ruined lives. Ruined her brother's life.

"Never again," she mumbled, even as she was staring at her shoulder and marvelling at how it was completely and totally healed. Not even a scar. Her skin almost seemed to be…Glowing.

Eventually it got to the point where she knew she couldn't put it off any later and so she tore her gaze away from her reflection. There was very little she could do about drying her hair so she just secured it into a loose bun at the back of her head and then pulled on her jeans and that ridiculous Fangtasia t-shirt. As soon as she got home she was determined to throw it straight into the bin. And then drive very far away from Shreveport.

It wasn't just Eric waiting for her when she exited the toilet into the main club room. The woman from the entrance was there too, perched on the edge of the throne in which Eric sat, the bartender was still working behind the bar – cleaning up, she supposed – and another vampire with dark brown hair who she didn't recognise was sat at the nearest tale to the throne, his arms crossed. He uncrossed them when he saw her come in though, and stood up to offer his hand to her.

"Grace isn't it? My name is Bill Compton, it's a pleasure to meet you." Grace ignored his outstretched hand, nodding in his direction instead, and sat down at the table nearest to her which put a comfortable distance between herself and the vampires. Everything was quiet for a moment; Eric was the first to break the silence.

"I suggest you start talking, Grace."

"I suggest you let me fucking leave before I call the police and report you for kidnapping, or forcing someone to take V against their will…Or something." Her voice had started out so determined, but had cracked and the last half was all mumbled. She knew as she was saying it that there was no way she was getting out of Fangtasia until Eric allowed her to.

"Miss, nobody here is going to hurt you. We'd just like you to tell us a bit about how you came to know what was going to happen. If what we suspect is true, you may be able to greatly help solving a situation we have right now." Bill offered her a friendly smile after he spoke, one she didn't return.

"Why the fuck would I want to help any of you?" Before Grace could continue her rant, Eric was in front of her.

"Because if you don't, fuck what Bill says, we will hurt you and the people that you love." His fangs were down and grazing her throat again. She tried to push him off her but he didn't budge, instead even coming closer so they were practically pressed up against each other.

"What happened to nobody here hurting me?" She mumbled. His hand reached up and snaked around her throat. The vampire bar was replaced with flashes of images. A girl with blonde hair; a bloody piece of wood discarded on the ground; a torn and bloody jacket. She couldn't make any sense of them. Eric tightened his hand, bringing her back to reality; the grip tight enough to convey that he wasn't messing around. Grace winced and tried to suppress the urge to vomit. She realised he was speaking to her.

"-too important for Bill's stupid concern for humans."

She knew the best thing to do in this situation, so close to death, would be to keep her mouth shut. Grace had never been very good at listening to her survival instincts.

"Well I don't particularly care if you hurt me to be honest. I'm not helping you fucking dickheads." His hand squeezed slightly and her vision was starting to go blurry around the edges. She vaguely heard Bill say something, but it was low, to the vampire woman near to him probably. The woman didn't make any sort of reply that Grace could hear.

"The people you love then." Despite the lack of oxygen flow, Grace still managed to cough out a laugh.

"You'd have to find him first. And it's not as easy as you'd think it would be, trust me." Her voice was ridiculously hoarse. Eric stared at her for a long second, seemingly forgetting that his hand was around her throat. She was starting to suffocate.

"Eric, this is no way to treat your guest." Out of the corner of her eye, Grace could make out Bill, a hand on Eric's shoulder. "As your King, I demand you to release this human." The hand on her throat was removed immediately. She gasped and spluttered for air, and for a scary second it seemed as if he'd done something to permanently damage her throat, that no air would come. When she could eventually breathe, it was extremely painful.

"I am so sorry about Mr. Northman here. He has no manners." Gently he pricked his wrist and held it out to her. "I can fix your throat." She shook her head, wincing at the sharp pain in her throat. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and rasping.

"No, no more. I'm not having any more of that fucking shit." He retracted his hand with a small smile.

"That's fair enough. Please, Grace, we just want to talk. And afterwards you are under no obligation to help us if you don't want to. You're free to go – as soon as we've had a little talk. Does that sound okay?" It seemed like the best offer she was going to get in this shithole, so she nodded, albeit warily. Suddenly Bill's face was very close to her own.

"Now Grace, I want you to listen very carefully-" His eyes seemed to be pulling her in, and she knew somehow that if she just kept listening everything would be okay, Bill would keep her safe. But something at the back of her mind was screaming at her, the pull on her consciousness was weakening. And then she realised what was happening.

"Wait, shit, are you trying to glamour me!? Get the fuck away from me!" Bill stepped back immediately, shock evident on his face.

"Hm, it's like I thought," Eric murmured from behind Bill. "There's definitely something…Different about her."

"What happened to having a conversation? Mind fucking someone is not exactly a fair method of communication!" Grace's fists clenched as she tried to keep her anger in check. She was in a room full of vampires, none of whom could be trusted. One wrong move and she could end up dead. Whilst she didn't particularly care about herself anymore, she cared about her brother. She had to get to him.

"I am so sorry Grace. I won't be trying that again, I promise."

"I don't think your promises count for shit, Bill Compton." Her voice was still hoarse and so it was more comical than chastising, but the message seemed to get across. Bill looked positively contrite. "Anyway let's just get this fucking over with. But I want you two over there. " She pointed in the direction of the throne, and in seconds they were there. They watched her curiously. "What do you want to know?" Bill shared a glance with Eric, something unnameable passing between the two of them. It was Eric who spoke.

"Let's just start with why you were in my bar in the first place." The woman behind Eric coughed. "Our…Our bar in the first place." Grace smirked despite herself, and then realised what the question was. She supposed there was no way around it; she might as well tell them the truth. Perhaps they might even be able to help her.

"I'm looking for my brother. He went missing a while ago."

"And why would your missing brother be in Fangtasia?" Bill asked gently.

"The last time I saw him he was hanging around the local fangbangers and hooked on V. Vamp bars are the only places I can think of where he might be. I've been to a lot of places like Fangtasia." Grace had felt a pull that had taken her all over the south the past year, from vamp bar to vamp bar, but her connection with her brother was weakening and it had gotten to the point where she could barely feel him anymore. When she'd arrived in Dallas she was about ready to give up hope, but then she'd met Godric and he had been so kind, unlike any other vampire she'd ever met. She'd trusted him when he said he thought she might find what she was looking for in Shreveport, even though realistically he had no way of knowing. But Grace didn't want to talk about Godric. She'd felt his death a while ago, when she was still making up her mind whether or not to come to Shreveport. It still upset her, though she barely knew him.

"Seems like a bit of an erratic method to me, just going from vampire bar to vampire bar randomly," Eric pressed, leaning further forward so he was now at the very edge of that ridiculous throne. Grace struggled with herself, conflicted as to what and how much she should tell to these virtual strangers, one of whom having already displayed psychopathic tendencies. The safest option would be to tell them nothing but she already knew that wasn't really a possibility – they weren't stupid enough to fall for whatever half formed excuse she'd be able to pull together in the little time she had. "Grace?"

She was running out of time. The truth about her had always been a secret that she had closely guarded, no one but her immediate family – and she suspected somehow, Godric – had known about it up until this point. But she couldn't see a way out of telling them that didn't end with her death, and then what would happen to her brother? The past year had been one of the darkest of her life, and often she had felt her will to live slip away from her, had done something stupid. Always, it had been the thought of her brother out there, alone, which had brought her back to herself; often just in time. It was the thought of him now that gave her the courage she needed.

"It wasn't erratic. I can sort of just feel him, and where he is, though he's managed to stay three steps ahead of me for a year and I can barely feel him anymore," she trailed off with a sigh. Here goes nothing. "That's also how I knew about the man with the gun. I'm clairvoyant. When you grabbed me – quite fucking hard might I add – I had a vision of him shooting a wooden bullet through your heart."

Eric stood up so fast that Grace flinched.

"I knew it!" He turned to Bill. "Do you know what this could mean?"

Bill nodded excitedly. "We could finally find out if she's okay!"

"And owning a person like that could make me next to invincible… Always knowing about a threat before it could hurt you would be-"

"Owning me!? Are you fucking serious because as far as I was aware slavery has long been made illegal and there's no way I'd let you own me willingly you absolute psychopath! I told you what you wanted to know, now fuck off and let me leave." For a second, she forgot herself and stood up, knocking her chair over in the process, but she hadn't even taken a step towards the door before Bill was blocking her path. He held his hands, palms out, towards her.

"Now Grace, calm down. Eric didn't mean anything by that. No one is going to be trying to own you at all. Like I mentioned earlier we have a…Situation. Would you sit down and let me explain? And then helping us is your decision or not. Either way, at the end you are free to walk out those doors whenever you want."

She didn't really have a choice. Angrily, she picked the chair back up and sat down. Bill visibly relaxed.

"Thank you, Grace. Right so, basically –" Bill broke off and looked at Eric. She followed his gaze to see the vampire had managed to contain his excitement at the prospect of her slavery enough to sit back down. He almost looked sorry. Not quite.

"A very good friend of ours has gone missing, for nearly a year now. Bill has long since thought she was dead but I know -"

"I don't want to think she's dead it's just the both of us are blood bonded with her and neither of us has felt her presence in the time she's been missing, which in most cases would mean she was dead. Our friend is not entirely human so there are….Other possibilities. I suppose what we'd want from you is to maybe find some way of seeing what has become of her or if she comes back to us in the future. If you could do this I – we – would both be extremely grateful."

Grace stared at them both for a minute, unsure, as a million questions clouded her thoughts. Not entirely human? What the hell did that mean? Was she a vampire?...But if she was a vampire wouldn't they just say vampire, instead of 'not entirely human'? Were there other supernatural creatures out there? And what the fucking hell was blood bonding!?

Her pause had caused the two vampires to become visibly anxious. Eric had started to take a step towards her, but Bill had thrown a hand out to stop him. It was Bill who approached her instead, but gently like you might approach a wounded animal. His expression became pleading. He reached out to take her hands in his but she had the good sense to snatch them away before he got the chance.

"Grace. Please. She is very important to us both. She is… She's my everything. I love her. I need to know what's happened to her."

Grace found with mild surprise that his pleading was actually working, pulling on her heartstrings and distracting her from all her internal questioning. After all, Grace knew what it was like to struggle with being in the dark about the whereabouts of a loved one. One more look at Bill's face and she knew she had to help (only partly because she still wasn't sure she'd leave alive if she refused), though she was damn well going to get something out of it too.

"I have very little control over what I see, but I suppose I could try and help. There's no guarantee that I'll see anything of use, I'm warning you now. And I have one condition."

Eric growled from his throne, and started to complain about how she was in no position to be bargaining with them, but Bill quieted him with a wave of his hand.

"Anything. Name it."

"Find my brother."


End file.
